back one by one. This method can be used on any part of 

 the hen's body where lice may be found. Keep a watchful 

 eye on the plumage of your bird. This with the comb gives 

 one an opportunity to get at the cause of the trouble before 

 the birds are really down and out. 



Speaking of soft shell eggs — Soft shelled eggs are not 

 always an indication that you are not giving enough oyster 

 shell and lime to make shell, but that the birds are fed too 

 much fattening foods. They are over fat and are being 

 forced for egg production. The result is that the eggs come 

 before there is time to cover them with the lime or shell. Do 

 not allow the birds to get too fat. With some breeds this is 

 practically impossible, but with some of the heavier breeds 

 it is likely to occur where rich fattening foods are given. 



If you use ordinary store boxes for shipping fowls, be ab- 

 solutely sure that there are no nails driven through the 

 boxes at the bottom. Many times these escape unnoticed, 

 with the result that some of the birds are cut by the sharp 

 points. Care should be taken in tacking shipping cards on 

 the coops and boxes containing birds either for fancy pur- 

 poses or for market. Do not drive the tacks through hold- 

 ing the card to the boards so the combs might get a severe 

 cut which would make much trouble. 



Ordinarily a hen outlives her productive period in three 

 years, and you are a gainer by sending her to market, though 

 I know of flocks from three to five years old that have been 

 carefully culled month after month, that are still producing. 

 I know of one hen, a cross breed between a brown leghorn 

 and barred rock, that produced 120 eggs in her eleventh year 

 and she is still going. It is a whole lot more costly to replace 

 hens than it is to keep them over. Of course this only applies 

 to laying hens. Cull at all times and do not keep slackers, 

 loafers, and non-producers in your flock. It is generally sup- 

 posed that with each successive year, the number of eggs 

 laid by a hen is lessened, but a good deal depends on the way 

 the flock is managed. If you permit your pullets to begin 

 laying at four and four and one-half months old and feed 

 them high protein foods in too large quantities and put the 

 electric lights on them in the winter time at 3 o'clock in the 

 morning, you'll surely blow them up. Now and then there is 

 a phenomenal hen that will be productive for several years, 

 but as a rule four years is about the limit, although as I have 

 said before, there are many exceptions and these hens make 

 excellent breeders. 



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